


some of it is my fault

by idaate



Category: Fate/Grand Order
Genre: "wouldn't it be messed up if nobukatsu successfully betrayed nobu" i said, Gen, Not Incest, and then i wrote a fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:54:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27073039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idaate/pseuds/idaate
Summary: “B-but this was all for you!” Nobukatsu protests, and it all comes out of him at once, his body shaking as he tries desperately, desperately, to keep it together. He can’t be taken as a joke here, not now. “I’m just the figurehead that everyone who opposes you needs, so if you take me down, they won’t have an excuse anymore. Most of them will fall back in line quickly enough, and those that don’t can be executed in example. And I--”“None of that will happen,” says Aneue plainly enough. “You have defeated me. No cheap victory handed to me like this could ever be satisfying.”-Nobukatsu succeeds in his second betrayal.
Relationships: Oda Nobukatsu & Oda Nobunaga | Archer
Comments: 1
Kudos: 32





	some of it is my fault

Of course, the one time he plans to fail, Nobukatsu succeeds a little too well.

His retainers wait just outside the door, the rest of his army a little beyond that. Aneue’s guards are all either sprawled out on the floor with their heads separated or long, long gone.

He holds his sword with his left hand, his right resting on his holster. He can’t look her in the eyes, not now, not yet. He doesn’t think he’ll be able to.

She isn’t moving to attack him, isn’t bracing herself or resting on the balls of her feet, eyes not skittering around the room for an opportunity to flee. There is no indication that she even acknowledges she’s in this situation, let alone ready to reject it, to take a grasp of it and his neck and snap it.

“Well,” she says brightly, “I really should have killed you when I had the chance.”

It’s, somehow, an attempt to lighten the mood. It suddenly hits him that she thinks he’s afraid of her; that he thinks she’ll kick his knees out from under him, steal his sword, and ram it through his heart in one swift motion. Maybe she’s right, really; he is afraid of her, but not for the reasons she thinks.

He says, “I’m sorry, Aneue,” and sheaths his sword.

“Hm?” Her lips quirk. “What is there to be sorry for? Are you trying to decide whether you want to blow my brains out or slit my throat? I’m partial to the former for obvious reasons, but I don’t think I can be very picky during--”

“Listen,” says Nobukatsu, lifting up his rifle to her. His hands can’t stop shaking. “I-it isn’t the flashiest, but if you wrap my cloak around the butt of this, like so, then not only will it stifle the noise somewhat, but it should create a strong enough spark to begin a decent fire. This temple isn’t particularly stable, and though the dry season is over, the lack of rain we’ve had means that the tinder will go ablaze quickly enough--”

The loose grin that Aneue had had on her face slowly slips, realization kicking in as he rambles and justifies and tries to come to a cohesive, halting conclusion before she holds up her hand, mouth a thin line. “Nobukatsu,” she says. 

“Y-yes?”

“Do not insult me,” she says. “You were granted a chance to execute me in private, which is overly sentimental enough as is.”

“B-but this was all for you!” Nobukatsu protests, and it all comes out of him at once, his body shaking as he tries desperately,  _ desperately,  _ to keep it together. He can’t be taken as a joke here, not now. “I’m just the figurehead that everyone who opposes you needs, so if you take me down, they won’t have an excuse anymore. Most of them will fall back in line quickly enough, and those that don’t can be executed in example. And I--”

“None of that will happen,” says Aneue plainly enough. “You have defeated me. No cheap victory handed to me like this could ever be satisfying.”

“You can’t tell me to kill you,” Nobukatsu says, and his voice is thick and catches on itself. He pulls his fist to his face for a moment as he gathers himself up before saying, “Everything-- I can’t. Everything was for you. You weren’t-- I was  _ supposed  _ to--”

Dammit. He can’t even look gracious during this. The tears fall in tiny  _ plip, plip, plops  _ off his cheek, running streaks through his ash-covered face as he runs through every possible scenario in his head, trying to come up with ways to salvage this situation. 

To be planning this for years, to only be foiled by the fact that his soldiers fought a little too hard, that he tried to prove how strong Aneue was a little too much, feels like yet another punch to the gut, another proven fact that he can’t be anything more than worthless. Look where all his attempts have gotten him. 

She is silent for a moment, and there is an ill hope in his chest that maybe, maybe, she's listened to reason, maybe she won’t give herself up this easily. She’s never caved in to their fights this easily. 

“Very well then,” she says, and Nobukatsu doesn’t register the sound of metal against metal until she has fully unsheathed her sword.

“No--  _ NO!!”  _ It comes out like more of a desperate cry than he’s proud of, and he throws himself at her feet, his full weight pulling against her hands as he wrestles with her for control of her own sword. She yelps slightly and kicks against his stomach, and for a moment, it feels like they’re children again, play fighting over who gets to keep the biggest stick they found behind the pond.

And, just like back then, Nobukatsu doesn’t stand a chance. Aneue kicks him in the head with a steel-coated boot and his helmet comes flying off as he goes rolling over in on himself, coming to rest a few dozen yards away from her. 

The world is spinning. He watches Aneue sit herself down in  _ seiza  _ upside down as he struggles to right himself, fingers fumbling with the floor beneath him. He chokes out,  _ “Aneue--” _

“Goodbye, Nobukatsu,” she says, and Nobukatsu can make out her blurry form lifting up something long and silver through the tears in his eyes. “I leave the rest to you.”

“I-I won’t!” he chokes out. “You can’t-- I’ll, I’m going to--” he grabs at the space where his sword should be, fingers stiff and locked, “I’ll commit _seppuku_. Right by you, you can’t-- you can’t stop me, so if you end it now, it’ll have all been for nothing--”

“Nobukatsu,” says Nobunaga, the cruellest thing she’s ever done to him, “do not dare kill yourself, after I am gone.”

He does not even have the time to retort as she plunges her blade into her own abdomen.

**Author's Note:**

> i was so happy nobukatsu got added to fgo i almost blacked out during the stream when his new sprite was revealed


End file.
